As we look to the future, sometimes it is
also good to look at the past. Here is a site that features the
actual dead sea scrolls. Brilliant pictures and descriptions. It
allows you to view, enlarge, scroll, etc.

Fragments of every book of the Hebrew Bible, except the Book of
Esther were found in the Qumran caves, the most famous of the Dead
Sea Scrolls sites. Some of these ancient copies are identical to the
traditional text of the Hebrew Bible that is used today. Other
copies preserve differences in the text, which was in the process of
standardization.

The myth is the white base color
of the candy cane symbolizes Jesus’ purity; the red stripes
symbolize Jesus’ blood when he died on the cross; and the J shape
was chosen to represent the J in Jesus. These and all other
religious connotations have been debunked or not able to be proven
as fact.

The facts - Candy canes started as white sugar sticks with no hook
as early as the 1600s. There is no reference to calling them candy
"canes" until the mid to late 1600s. No fact as to why the sticks
were changed into canes, although many believe it was so the candy
could be hung on a Christmas tree.

The red stripe was not added until the early 1900s. No one knows who
invented the stripes, but Christmas cards prior to the year 1900
showed only all-white candy canes. Christmas cards after 1900 showed
illustrations of striped candy canes.

The bottom line is that we do not know who started making them,
why, or who added the hook, but most people love candy canes and
that is a fact.

Had to finish the year with a
few strange Christmas traditions from around the world.

On Christmas in Caracas they skate to mass on roller skates.
Firecrackers pop to wake the citizens, who put on their skates for
the pre-dawn trip to mass. Streets are closed in the mornings to
allow the skating churchgoers to pass.

In Catalonia, the traditional nativity scene has an extra figure. El
Caganer can be found somewhere on the periphery of the scene,
crouched in the squatting position of a bowel movement. It is
believed “The Defecator” in the nativity scene will fertilize the
coming year with a good harvest of wealth and prosperity. The statue
can be a monk, a shepherd, a popular sports star, or celebrity, but
he is always wearing his signature red Catalan hat as he squats
above a pile.

In Italy, the gift-bringer is a kind but hideous witch named La
Befana. She missed seeing the Christ-child, because she was busy
when the wise men told her to come. La Befana comes late, several
days after Christmas Day, but leaves gifts at each house in case the
holy infant is there.

In Ireland it is traditional to leave out mince pie and Guinness as
snacks for Santa.

Norwegians legend says witches and evil spirits come out on
Christmas Eve to steal brooms and ride around causing mischief.

In the Ukraine, Christmas trees are adorned with silver and gold
spider webs. This tradition came from the story of a poor woman
without means to decorate for the holiday. As she slept, spiders
spun webs of pure gold and silver to beautify her tree and bring her
wealth.

This one is sure to
give you borborygmus. It is a name-brand scent in a little bottle
that was introduced in December 2012.

Pizza Hut Inc. in Canada came out with a limited edition bottle of
Pizza Hut perfume, probably to advertise the chain’s sense of humor.

The perfume is supposed to recreate the smell of a box of Pizza Hut
being opened, with top notes of freshly baked dough, according to
the company. Pizza hut is owned by Yum Brands, which also owns KFC
and Taco Bell among others.

As we enjoy the holidays sitting in
front of a warm fire with our feet up and pondering our toes, here
are a few interesting feet facts.

Human feet can sweat up to a pint of fluid a day. Feet have more
sweat glands than any other part of the body, approximately 125,000
in each foot. The toughest skin on your body is on your feet.
Toenails grow fastest during your teenage years, in hot weather, and
when you are pregnant.

American actor Matthew McGrory, 7'6" had the record-breaking foot
size until he passed away in 2005. He was in the Guinness Book of
World Records for being the tallest actor and having the largest
toe. His shoe size was 29 1/2.

The name comes from the fact
mistletoe starts from bird droppings made from the red or white
berries. It is a parasitic plant and roots to the branches of trees.
Thus “mistle” or “missel”, which meant “dung”, and “toe”, which came
from the Anglo-Saxon “tan” meaning “twig.” There are over 900
species of mistletoe and it grows on a wide variety of trees.

Ancient Greeks considered the plant an aphrodisiac and believed it
aided in fertility. Norseman believed mistletoe was a plant of peace
and when enemies met under the mistletoe they were obliged to stop
fighting for at least a day. Eventually, this spawned a tradition to
hang mistletoe over the doorway for peace and good luck.

It became associated with Christmas from the tradition of hanging
mistletoe in one’s home to bring good luck and peace to those within
the house. It hung year round and was replaced each Christmas eve or
at New Year.

During the 16th century in Britain, it became popular to create a
ball of mistletoe hung as a Christmas decoration. Couples standing
under the mistletoe were to kiss if the mistletoe ball still had
berries. For each kiss, one berry would be taken from the ball. Once
all the berries were gone, all the “luck” was drained out and it
became bad luck to kiss beneath it.

Mistletoe leaves and young twigs are used by herbalists, and it is
popular in Europe, especially in Germany, for treating circulatory
and respiratory system problems.

December 25, 325 is the first
date that Christmas was celebrated specifically on December 25.
December 25, 597 England adopted the Julian calendar, now used by
most of the world.
December 25, 800 Charlemagne is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope
Leo III.
December 25, 1066 William the Conqueror is crowned King of England.
December 25, 1717 the great Christmas Flood ravaged the Netherlands
and parts of Germany and Scandinavia.
December 25, 1776 - 11pm, General George Washington, along with
5,400 men, crossed the Delaware River, in order to surprise Hessian
troops celebrating the Christmas Holiday.
December 25, 1914 the Christmas Truce. During the height of World
War I, the Germans began to sing Christmas Carols, crossed the
lines, and met with Allies and both shook hands. (The next day they
resumed fighting.)
December 25, 2002 University of New Mexico junior place-kicker Katie
Hnida attempts to kick an extra point in a game against UCLA in the
Las Vegas Bowl. She is first woman to play in Division I football.December 25, 2012 - Merry Christmas!

Ted Healy, another vaudvillian
discovered the act in 1925 as they were performing on vaudeville.
They were originally billed as "Ted Healy And His Stooges", but the
trio broke away from Healy in 1934 due to his mismanagement of them
and their finances. He passed away in 1937.

Dec 19, 2012

Properly speaking a pill traditionally
has been round shaped (due to manufacturing limitations) and a
tablet is a mixture of pharmacological substances pressed into a
small cake or bar.

A pill can be a capsule, which usually contains liquid, or a pellet,
which usually is dry pressed. Pills can also be lozenges, which were
traditionally diamond shaped and are usually sucked, rather than
swallowed.

Here is the order of pills that act the quickest: Liquids,
Liqui-gel caps, Chew or rapid-release tablets, Capsules, Hard
tablets.

So, all tablets are pills, but all pills are not tablets.

If you find this hard to swallow, take two aspirin and see me next
week.

The difference between bacon and salted pork
or ham is primarily the composition of the brine that is used to
cure it. Brine for bacon often includes sodium nitrite, sodium
nitrate, and saltpeter (for curing the meat); sodium ascorbate (for
setting the color, as well as speeding up the curing process); and
brown or maple sugar (for flavor), among other ingredients. Brine
for ham tends to have a significantly higher concentration of sugar.
Incidentally, the USDA defines “bacon” as “the cured belly of a
swine carcass”

Big Boy Restaurants International LLC bought
the franchise from Elias Brothers (Michigan). It is a restaurant
chain keeping its headquarters in Warren, Michigan. Big Boy started
in 1936 and is considered the first US franchise. It also pioneered
the first double decker hamburger, named the Big Boy.

Detroit, Canada and other places have Elias Brother's Big Boy. Ohio,
Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee have Frisch's Big Boy, now a
co-owner of the name. Shoney's Big Boy was up and down the East
Coast and Southwest, but gave up the Big Boy name in 1984.
California, where Big Boy originated has Bob's Big Boy. There are
numerous others.

When Marriott bought the chain, it expanded and changed many of the
franchise localities. It sold to Elias Brothers, one of the largest
franchisees.

The oldest remaining Bob’s Big Boy restaurant in the United States,
“Bob’s 49″ is in Burbank, CA. It was built in 1949.

Did you forget why you went into the kitchen? It
may be more location than age related. Researchers in Notre Dame
conducted several experiments on rooms and their effect on memory.
Subjects in the study were divided into two groups and given a
simple task while traveling the same distance. The only difference
is one group went through a doorway and the other did not.

They found that people who traveled through the doorway were three
times more likely to forget their task. Researchers concluded that
our mind perceives doorways as “event boundaries” and that decisions
you made in that room are “stored” there when you leave. That is
also why it is easier to remember if you go back into that room. That
presumes you remember which room you came from.

Discreet describes showing “reserve,
prudence, or cautiousness” in one’s behavior or speech. The noun
form of discreet is discretion. Both discreet and discrete derive
from the Latin “discretus”, meaning separate, situated, put apart,
which derives from the Late Latin discernere (where the word
“discern” came from).

Discrete means “distinct, separate, or unrelated.” The noun form of
discrete is discreteness.

Here is how each might be used in a sentence.
These two items are discrete.
The politician was not discreet.

Discrete and discreet are homophones; words that sound alike, but
differ in meaning or spelling or both.

A swan has over 25,000 feathers
in its body. Snails have 14175 teeth laid along 135 rows on their
tongue. The North Atlantic right whale's testes account for around
1% of its total body weight, and each of them can weigh over a
thousand pounds. Africa's Nile crocodile can measure twenty feet
long and weigh two thousand pounds. A horse has sixteen muscles in
each ear, which allows it to rotate its ears a full 180 degrees.

The tongue does not have zones
specializing in specific tastes. It turns out this myth started when
Harvard Psychologist Edwin G. Boring mistranslated a German paper
written in 1901 titled “Zur Psychophysik des Geschmackssinnes.” The
tongue paper, written by German Scientist D.P. Hanig, outlined
Hanig’s research on the four known basic tastes. He put together a
group of subjects and tested the main tastes on each of them on
various parts of their tongues until he figured he had a good map
put together on where they tasted various tastes the most.

This myth endured until the 1970′s when scientists tested tongue
maps and debunked Hanig’s paper.

The term "Canuck" originated in 1869 from
Johnny Canuck, a nationalistic symbol billed as a younger, simpler
cousin to America's Uncle Sam or Britain's John Bull. During World
War II, Johnny Canuck was used as a mascot in pro-Canadian
propaganda as Canada's personal defender against the Axis Powers.

A Canuck is also a small or medium-sized hardy horse, common in
Canada. In addition, it is the name of the NHL hockey team in
Vancouver, Canada.

Blood vessels in a human
body can be as long as 60,000 miles.
Humans are born with over 300 bones, but this number reduces to 206
in adults because some naturally fuse together as we grow.
Of the 206 bones, 106 are located in the hands and feet.
The liver is the largest solid organ and it contains 10% of the blood in a
human body.
The stirrup bone in the middle ear is the smallest bone in the human
body and is about .11 inches long.
The average person has 100,000 hairs on his or her head. Hair grows
about five inches per year.
The strongest muscle in the human body is the tongue in proportion
to its size. The hardest bone is the jawbone.
The tooth is the only part of the human body that can not repair
itself.
It takes twice as long to lose new muscle if you stop working out
than it did to gain it.
We use 200 muscles to take one step and we average 10,000 steps a
day.

Ice cream is good for your tongue, but if
you put it in the freezer it gets hard as a rock. Next time, put the
carton in a plastic bag. It will be much softer when you take it out
so you do not need to bend your spoon.

Greek and Roman mythology refer to apples as
symbols of love and beauty. This time of year we often think of warm
apple cider on a cold night.

Apples contain Vitamin C, Beta-Carotene, iron, potassium, and more.
Apples have very high mineral contents, pectins, malic acid which
are good in normalizing the intestines. Apples are good for
treatment of anemia, dysentery, heart disease, headache, eye
disorders, and kidney stones. Apple juice is an excellent means of
providing essential fluids to the body.

A number of components in apples, have been found to lower blood
cholesterol with a reduced risk of ischemic heart disease, stroke,
prostrate cancer, type II diabetes, asthma, and a new study findings
published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease show there may be
some help for those patients.Apples are also good for treatment of
the Acid reflux condition also called gerd (gastro esophageal reflux
disease).

The terms “heart attack”
and “cardiac arrest” are often used interchangeably. However, they
are not equivalent. “Cardiac arrest” simply implies the heart has
stopped pumping blood. A heart attack is a lack of blood flow to a
specific area of the heart caused by some blockage, spasm, or
rupture.

People who have a heart attack are significantly more likely to
survive than those who suffer cardiac arrest. While both are bad,
cardiac arrest is worse.

Shirley Jones and Shaun Cassidy remain the only mother and son to
each have a #1 record. Also, Shirley Jones, David Cassidy, and Shaun
Cassidy remain the only mother/son/step-son trio to all have #1
records.

December 14 is officially Monkey Day. Decided to let you know this week so you have time to prepare for this officious occasion of all things monkey business.

This is a day devoted to bananas, ape culture, and general monkeying around. Founded by a cartoonist and student at Michigan State University, Casey Sorrow unpeeled Pandora’s Banana when he jotted “Monkey Day” on a friend’s calendar. It was subsequently promoted in Sorrow’s controversial school newspaper cartoon “Fetus-X”, and by other cartoonists, and now its a sort of phenomenon. Hallmark recognizes it and it is celebrated by monkey-centric costume parties, the consumption of Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey, and by just becoming concerned with what’s going on in the world of monkeys.

Here are some interesting animal tidbits. You can tell a turtle’s gender by the noise it makes. Males grunt and females hiss. Pigs exhibit more than 20 vocalizations for various circumstances. Houseflies always hum in the key of F. Male ostriches can roar like lions. Giraffes have no vocal cords and humpback whales create the loudest sound of any living creature.

In the US a college and
university are essentially the same thing. They are both
institutions which give degrees. In commonwealth nations the terms
are more distinct. A college can be a school affiliated with a
university – the college prepares the student for the degree and the
university with which it is affiliated gives the degree.

Another way to describe the difference in the US is a college offers
a collection of degrees in one specific area while a university is a
collection of colleges. When you go to a university you are going to
be graduating from one of their colleges, such as the business
college. A Community College is different from both in that it
cannot grant a bachelor's degree.

Some “colleges” in the UK are really secondary schools. One famous
example is Eton College, where students typically enter at age 13.
In Australia and New Zealand, “college” means high school.

I usually buy some fairly green and some not
so green so they do not all ripen at the same time. Here is another
method. Take a piece of cling wrap about the size of your fist and
wrap it tightly around the crown.

Each time you remove a banana remove and replace the cling wrap. If done correctly this method should give you another few days before your bananas are too ripe to enjoy. Seems it reduces the ethylene which ripens the fruit faster. It it doesn't work, there is always banana bread.

This is a rude way of telling
someone they are not welcome. In medieval England, it was regarded
as a polite gesture. After a feast, the host would let his guests
know it was time to leave by giving them a cold piece of meat from
the shoulder of beef, mutton, or pork. Even though it now seems
rude, the meaning lingers that it is time to go.

Some experts say that the Internet
is growing by an exabyte of data every day. To put that in
perspective, an exabyte equals 250 million DVDs.

After an exabyte comes a zettabyte, which equals 1,000 exabytes. In
2011, no single data center could hold a zettabyte of information.

By 2016, Cisco predicts that data centers will be sending more 1.3
zettabytes across the Internet every year. That's the equivalent of
sending all movies ever made across the Internet every 3 minutes.

The National Security Agency is building a $2 billion data center in
Utah that will be the world's first to store a store a yottabyte of
data. That's 1,000 zettabytes or 1 million exabytes (or 1 million
billion gigabytes).

Dec 5, 2012

Here is another common myth debunked.
The most popular Coke myth is that if you were to leave a tooth in a
cup of coke overnight by morning the tooth would be completely
dissolved. Like most of the other legends involving the popular
drink this is totally untrue.

Here is another one of those
studies that makes me wonder. It contends that children who grow up
in hygienic households develop more allergies, eczema, and other
disorders that result from a depressed antibody response. Scientists
have theorized that children from middle class and affluent families
have weaker immune systems because they live in cleaner homes.

Besides increases in medicated and vaccinated children in the past
20 years, the number of children with allergies has also doubled,
with the sharpest increase among the middle classes.

Their study examined 8,306 patients, 776 of which had some form of
reaction to peanuts, and the findings were presented at the annual
meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology.

Lead study author, allergist Dr Sandy Yip, said, ‘Overall household
income is only associated with peanut sensitization in children aged
one to nine years. This may indicate that development of peanut
sensitization at a young age is related to affluence, but those
developed later in life are not.’ Am not sure of the
relationship between dust bunnies and peanuts, but why take
chances. Was going to clean my house today, but think it might be
healthier if I wait a few weeks.

This week I received an email from
mailsafe.keybank.com that was titled: "You have received a secure
message." It had an attachment and the message said to download the
attachment and read it. It also gave a 888 number to call if I had
questions. I looked it up and found it was a cell phone number in
India.

Many infections to computers come from this type of spam. If you see
something that you suspect, the best thing to do is delete the
message. Never open an attachment.